In the weeks since a woman was viciously gang-raped on a New Delhi bus, the misogyny and parochialism of India’s mostly male, mostly rural politicians have been on full display. Senior politicians blamed the rape on Western culture, on Westernized women, on modern city life, even on bad karma. The government’s mishandling of the popular outrage made the situation worse: Police in New Delhi used tear gas and water cannons on female protesters, many of them college students.

North Korea’s announcement of plans to pursue another satellite launch between December 10 and 22 may have been unwelcome, but it should not have been entirely unanticipated. North Korea defiantly stated that it would continue to test long-range multi-stage rockets on its April 17 response to a UN Security Council Presidential statement condemning North Korea’s failed April 12 launch. Another launch will likely have a disproportionate political impact since it comes prior to national elections scheduled in Japan on December 16 and in South Korea on December 19. Here’s a rundown of the challenges a North Korean satellite launch poses during this political transition period:

Pitching India is no longer a chore for Rajiv Anand, the chief executive of Axis Asset Management, a Mumbai-based money manager that oversees $1.9 billion. Until recently, Anand struggled to persuade would-be investors turned off by corruption scandals, political paralysis, and the slowing economy to give India a chance. A series of power failures in July that plunged hundreds of millions of Indians into darkness didn’t help. Nor did warnings of impending downgrades to the country’s credit rating, which stands just one notch above junk. “Trying to sell the India story just didn’t resonate,” Anand says. “Nobody wanted to hear it.”

Last week the Japanese government signed a contract to buy the Senkaku Islands for 2.05 billion JPY (USD 26.2 million) from its private owners. Being disputed territory (the Chinese call them Diaoyu and the Taiwanese Tiaoyutai) it should come as no surprise that they get politicised from time to time, producing tensions in Sino–Japanese relations.

NEW DELHI – India’s sliding economy has inspired gloom and doom far and wide, but increasingly bearish sentiment is misplaced. India still offers hope, but, to understand why, you have to leave macroeconomic indicators aside and go micro. To take one example: Google the phrase “frugal innovation,” and the first 20 search results all relate to India.

TOKYO – Few recent elections have grabbed world attention in the way that Greece’s vote on June 17 did. Now that the center-right New Democracy, which finished first, has formed a coalition government with the center-left PASOK and the Democratic Left, the key issue for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s administration is whether it can implement the austerity measures agreed with Greece’s eurozone partners in exchange for continued support from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

TOKYO – On March 11, a year will have passed since Japan was struck by the triple tragedy of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident. According to figures announced by the country’s National Police Agency, the Great East Japan Earthquake left behind 15,848 dead and 3,305 missing – the largest loss of life due to natural disaster in Japan since World War II. Searches for the missing – mainly at sea – are still continuing.

TOKYO – China’s behavior during the recent presidential election in Taiwan demonstrates that its leaders have learned some lessons, if only the hard way. They have learned that China can have a greater impact on Taiwanese voters through trade and making people feel richer than by threats – even threats to fire missiles – which had been China’s electoral tactics in previous Taiwanese elections, particularly when a pro-independence candidate looked popular enough to win.

Following a meeting Tuesday, senior diplomatic officials from the United States, Japan, and South Korea said that "a path is open" for Pyongyang to rejoin the suspended Six-Party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program. But CFR Senior Fellow Scott A. Snyder says the talks are unlikely to resume soon. Snyder says North Korea, in the aftermath of Kim Jong-il's death, is waiting to see if a more favorable government will be elected in South Korea this year and is unwilling to improve inter-Korean relations, a U.S. requirement for resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang. "The North Koreans, by taking differing positions toward the United States and South Korea, appear to be trying to divide the United States and South Korea," says Snyder, "and the significance of the meeting in Washington Tuesday was to signal that that would not be acceptable from the U.S., South Korean, and Japanese points of view."

Despite an outward show of unity in the wake of Kim Jong-il's death, there is much unknown about North Korea's succession process, says Scott A. Snyder, CFR's top expert on Korea.